Fundamentals: How to Write an Effective SAN RFI

Kurt Marko01/02/12

What's Driving Storage Requirements?

Pundits are hailing 2012 as the year of big data--as if that's a good thing. In our InformationWeek 2012 Big Data Survey of business technology professionals at organizations with a minimum of 10 TB of data, just 15% rate their shops as very effective at managing these large data sets. This is placing storage teams in the spotlight during IT strategy and budgeting sessions. Are you ready when the CIO asks about your plan?

The IT equivalent of duct tape and spit isn't a strategy. Not only must our systems cope with unrelenting demands for added capacity, they must adapt to the changing application hosting environment: Dedicated servers are out, virtualization is in. Our databases need lightning-fast access. Convergence is the key word for network architects. As these and other dynamics put increasing stress on legacy storage systems, many IT organizations are looking beyond just adding hardware to rethinking their entire storage and data architectures.

Upgrades of this magnitude need to follow a well-thought-out, comprehensive strategy that sets parameters for product and vendor evaluations. It’s a process that benefits from rigor and formality--when it comes time to cut a six- or seven-figure check, you don't want to be tossing the dice and hoping for the best. To tip the odds in your favor, make vendors address your needs on your terms through a formal request process.

Think of it as the IT version of Survivor, and the challenge begins with a hard-hitting request for information. (S4110212)